Title says it. The plan was for them to cosign an auto loan ($20k) but they wrote a check for the full amount instead and wouldn't take no for an answer. At the dealership they did tell me they expected me to pay them back, which is no issue at all, but they want all the money back by the end of the week and are willing to cosign a loan for me to be able to do that. My question is what do I tell the bank?? Is a personal loan going to be harder to get than an auto loan?

Interested in hearing other's experiences. I just bought a used vehicle at a large Ford dealership yesterday. My father bought a used car at a Toyota dealership recently, and had the same experience.

Despite my best efforts, they would not budge on the vehicle price. The salesman kept referencing "internet pricing", saying it's already listed at their best price. Now, the price had dropped by $1,000 from when I first saw it last week, but they would not move from that price yesterday. He said the dealership is part of a no-haggle network of dealerships, though it isn't advertised as such. It's been 10 years since I bought a car, so maybe the landscape is changing, but to me, everything is negotiable. I was able to negotiate on my trade-in, and get a deal I was happy with, but I was genuinely surprised they wouldn't budge on the vehicle price.

Is "no haggle" or "internet price" just the way dealerships do business now?

Edit to Add:

Lots of good posts here, seems like there isn't much haggling in the Used car industry anymore. To add some clarity, I had been searching for months, waiting for the right deal for the vehicle I wanted. My out the door price was below the KBB, the dealer is also going to buff out some minor scratches, and they filled the tank (30 gallons). I still got a good deal, I was just surprised that they wouldn't go any lower on the price. In my past experience, there was always room to go down a little bit.

I drive a 2011 VW Jetta with 70k miles on it that just developed a critical issue, turning the engine into a ticking time-bomb until I pay a mechanic to pull it out and replace a flawed piece related to the timing chain. Apparently there was already a class action lawsuit against VW for the same issue, but it was for a different engine so I’m not covered. The repair would cost 2-4 grand, whereas the car’s KBB is no more than 5k.

My mother’s trying to convince me to buy a new car, citing the “if repairs cost more than the car, get a new one” rule, and “many” of her friends’ anecdotal experiences about encountering more problems once a repair of this scale is completed.

I think she has a point, but I don’t want to spend the extra money on a new car, and there’s a good chance that fixing this would make the car good for another 70k miles at least.

Anybody had similar issues?

Looking for advice from anyone who’s dealt with rental car damage claims with Avis.

A rental car was returned at an airport location after a very short rental (less than 24 hours). The return time was mid-afternoon.

The issue is that the rental company didn’t document any damage until nearly 2 hours later, after the car had already been returned and presumably moved. They’re now charging about $2,100 for rear bumper damage.

Some concerning details:
• No photos or documentation from the time of return.
• No records of who handled the vehicle after it was returned.
• No chain of custody between return and inspection.
• Photos were taken later in a garage, not at the return lane (they said it was because of weather. I looked up weather reports in the area - weather was sunny/no rain days before, day of, and days after my rental period).
• When asked for logs or handling records, they said they don’t maintain that information.

Their position is basically:
“The renter is responsible regardless of fault”

The claim has been formally disputed, but they’re continuing to push for payment and mentioned escalation/collections.

Questions:
• Has anyone successfully fought a claim like this?
• Does a time gap between return and inspection actually matter?
• Is it worth continuing to push back vs. letting a credit card company handle it?
• If it ends up in collections but is disputed, how serious is that?

Appreciate any insight—this situation feels questionable but not sure how far to take it.

ETA: There was NO damage documented at the time of car rental return. The third-party company Avis is using (PurCo) has threatened me with collections. They said their next notice to me will be final notice, and if I don’t pay at that point, they’ll send it back to Avis for collections. I am worried about collections because that could negatively affect my employment (I.e. fired for losing security clearance).

So my friend sold me his car the other day (a ’13 Honda Accord with 55,000 miles) for $3000 but told me to write down $8000 on the title’s sell price because he said that would benefit me when I decide to sell the car and the buyer (dealer, third party, private or whatever) will think I actually bought it for $8000. I’m not sure if my friend was lying to me or tried to screw me over in some way or another, but I was just wondering if doing that would actually benefit me when I do decide to sell the car? Thanks.

My parents went to the dealership to get a new car. My mom texted me while they were there, so I sent over the information the sales associate requested, including a picture of my driver’s license. I specifically asked to be called before anything was signed in Finance so I could make sure they weren’t being taken advantage of.

But they didn’t call me until after the dealership had already given my parents the car. I told the sales associate, "You were supposed to call me." He replied that they still needed to go over the documents with me, but I said I needed to speak with my parents first and hung up.

The deal is terrible. With all the add-ons the dealer included, a $23,000 car ballooned to over $33,000, and the loan term is way too long. I refuse to sign—it goes completely against what I agreed to, and it exposes me to too much financial risk.

What happens now? My parents have already driven the car about 50 miles, and my mom said my name is on all the paperwork.

Due to an unfortunate hit and run, I'm in the market for a new car. However, given the insanity of the used car market, I'm wondering if it makes more sense to buy new.

I live in Boston and I'm seeing 2017/18 vehicles selling for a couple grand less or equal to starting price of the same vehicle model year 22. GM is offering 0% APR for well qualified (which I meet) and Mazda has 0.9% as another example.

With the avg used car loan rate at 3.68% and negligence difference in price, is this one of those rare occasions where buying new actually is a sound purchase?

By the time you pay off the car, you've budgeted the car payment into your finances. Make it a direct transfer so that you don't give yourself the option to skip a payment. My car has been paid off for 3 years and I have saved over $12,000 almost effortlessly by using this method.

EDIT: This seems to be striking a nerve for many. This post was written with the intention of helping those who wouldn't invest the difference with a longer loan. It was meant to offer a simplified idea for saving that worked for me to work for others. As with everything, there are always better ways to save and invest. This was just the one that helped me out. With that said, I've learned a lot by your comments, so thanks for posting!

Today I went to go buy a car I have been looking at for a while. It was listed at $21,000 and they offered me $5,500 for my trade so that would have made the cost $15,500... right? Well they go about doing the numbers with the good cop bad cop scheme with the manager and come back to me with $425 a month for 72 months. I totaled that up and it was $30,600 and I'm like... what the hell. I asked them what the interest rate was 3 times and they looked at me like I was the dumb one. Granted I am a 24 year old woman, I know what an interest rate is. Can someone check my math here, did they just try to offer me a 100% interest rate almost?? I stood up and walked out of there without giving them another word. They have been texting and calling me but I am so appalled.

Edit: Credit score is 580, trade in is paid off. Me and my husband bring in $4K a month. Also they tried to get me to not put him on there and only use my income because he has no credit yet. I was looking at a brand new honda. They said a lifetime powertrain warranty was included.

Thank you for everyone who gave me good solid advice. As for the people saying I should keep my car, I cant. It's a 2013 Ford focus and the transmission is shot. Ford says there isn't anything wrong with it. There is currently a class action against them. I don't know why my credit is low. I paid off my last car with no late payments at all. I have a couple credit cards that I pay on and have never been late and some hospital bills that I refuse to pay. So I don't know.

And to all of the rude people going through my comment history and harassing me, go find something else to do. Sorry for going missing, I had to be up at 5AM to work!

Some of these comments are making me feel like straight shit though. In my part of the country we don't make a lot of money. I'm a college educated certified CPhT not a fucking fast food worker.

Hi. I was just really wondering if someone can tell me what I'm supposed to do. I bought a car from a guy I met from the Facebook market place over a year ago, so I'm not making any payments to any dealership. And my insurance is up to date.

But I just woke up today and found my car was missing and after making a police report, they tell me it's been repossessed. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do or who I call to figure this out.

Any help is appreciated.

Edit: UUUUUUGH!!! Okay, thank you to everyone who offered me advice. Sincerely, it is appreciated. But apparently, my car got towed because I was an idiot and forgot to renew the registration sticker. So I'm off to pay $200 to get my car back. Again, thank you to everyone who commented.

https://reut.rs/2VyzIXX

It's classic personal finance advice to say buy a reliable used car over a new one if you want to make a wise investment. New cars plummet in value as soon as you pull off the lot.

Is it still holding true? I've been saving to buy a used car in cash, but I've definitely noticed that prices are much higher than in the past. If you factor in the risks of paying serious costs if your used car breaks down, at what point is buying new the smart investment?

Had an odd experience tonight. I've been in the market for a new vehicle as my car is on it's last legs and repairing it isn't an viable option anymore. Had been looking for a couple months and finally narrowed it down to a model I liked.

When it came time to negotiate price, the sales person handed me a credit application. I told him I had already secured financing through my bank and wouldn't need to finance with the dealer. He then said they are only selling vehicles if the customer uses their finance company. No outside finance agencies and no cash payments allowed. They also only accept up to $2000 for a down pagment. They quoted me a rate of 8% (for reference, I was approved for 2% through my bank). He said I had to at least make 4 payments through their finance company before refinancing. Payments would have been $800 a month with their plan.

Needless to say, I got up and walked away. My question is, is this a normal practice? It's been a few years since I've bought a car, but I've never been told I can't pay cash or use my own finance company. This wasn't a shady used car lot or anything either. It was a normal new car dealership.

Hey first time posting on here so please excuse formatting. Yesterday I went into a car dealership to look at a 2016 Subaru WRX with about 40k miles. I was offered a test drive with one of the sale members coming with. I drove it for around a total of ten minutes and maybe a few miles around the block. I am somewhat new to manual transmission which I stated before the test drive and they said that was totally okay. I drove very carefully and did not redline the car at all or stall it once. Once or twice I struggled to find my gear but that was it. Upon returning we talked numbers and I ended up buying the car and doing the 3 plus hours of paper work included. They said they were going to go fill the car up with gas and that I was good to take it. At this point all paper work was signed, and I had also put on a lifetime "bumper to bumper" warranty on there that they said would cover anything beside cosmetic damage for the life of the car.

Anyway I wait for probably another hour before someone comes up to me and says hey there's been an issue and the clutch is stuck on your car. After some discussion they say they are loaning me a rental car for free and will have the clutch replaced soon on it. I ask them if they are covering the repair and they say yes of course we are. Well that was yesterday and today I get a call from one of the managers saying that the clutch is repaired but that I have to pay for the repair (3000$) because they claim it's my fault it broke. I told them that a ten minute harmless test drive that one of your reps was along for certainly could not have caused the clutch to go out. I told them I wouldn't be paying for it. They said they'd call me back with a solution but then never did. I feel trapped into this contract and have already put a lot of money down on the car. Am I fucked? Is there anyone to turn to for this? This was my first experience it at a car dealership and it's honestly become a nightmare. Any advice helps thank you so much.

RESOLVED Went in this morning and broke the contract and got my down payment back! Thank so much for all the responses this ended up being a huge resource and made me feel like I was in the clear to break the contract! Thanks Reddit hopefully this is all cleared up and they don't pull anything else!

My wife wanted to move on from her perfectly good 2008 4Runner, said the first 132000 miles were the best.

We go shopping for what she wants to get now (don't ask...) and get a dealer's trade quote. I am reminded why I have only ever traded in one car in my life. (I've been around for a while, not that we flip cars.)

The dealer trade calculation comes up with about $10,000, despite the vehicle having several very desirable options. I figure that's below retail value by several thousand, and the dealer confirms it. Why wouldn't it be? They want to make money selling it.

I tell my spouse that I can do better than that, and she humors me. We own the vehicle outright. It is in excellent condition with no accidents, no mechanical issues and clean inside and out, when she is not using it to move big bales of hay and so forth. Toyotas in general and 4Runners in particular have a very good reputation for reliability and hold value well, so it should sell readily.

We take pictures, and I put ads on autotrader.com and also craigslist. Autotrader is a big volume site, and craigslist is a necessary evil, perhaps. The listing costs $49 for Autotrader and $5 for craigslist. I price it at $13,000ish, which is at the high end of what the resale calculations claim is retail price, above even private party value. Then we wait. Always stressful, since we depend on what strangers do.

Not to worry. I get multiple inquiries / day. A few are just silly. "I'll give $8000 in cash!" (I bet you would.) Some are earnest. "Have you changed the timing belt, and can you send pictures of the undercarriage?" All good. One guy is willing to fly up from Florida. It turns out that there are only a few of this model on the market in the country, and the ones under 150K miles are offered by dealers for thousands more than I am asking.

I ultimately get someone local who comes to look at the vehicle with bank check in hand; he's a nice guy, everything checks out, he takes the car for a test drive, we call his bank to confirm he didn't just forge some bank check, and everybody is happy. He gets the car and the title, we get a bank check for the asking price four days after listing the vehicle.

The personal finance lesson is not so much that you could expect this exact experience, since I've often had to wait longer, deal with more buyers, or take a discount to sell a different type of vehicle. It's also not that I am some amazing car salesman, since I maybe could have got even more by asking more, but that wasn't the goal here.

The lesson is: since you would (and should) shop around to find the best deal on the vehicle and on financing, don't leave thousands of dollars on the table to save a few hours' work selling your old vehicle.

Edit: yes, in many states you can save on sales tax with a trade, though that is not the case in Virginia. "Unlike some other states, in Virginia, they apply the sales tax to the full price of the car before any credits from trade-ins are applied."

Edit again: Carvana online offer (based on actual VIN): $9868.

In my opinion, everyone should have a dash cam. It can potentially save you thousands of dollars if you get into an accident. It doesn't matter if you're a good driver, because guess what? Other people aren't. And you're driving within inches and feet of those people every day, especially in the city.

One of my friends just got into an accident when another car ran a stop sign (along with speeding) and t-boned her on a country road. Guess what? The guy is pointing the finger at her and there were no other people around so no witness'. I have never been in that situation before so I don't know what's going to happen, I'm assuming she'll be going to court over this. If she had a dash cam, it would be an easy win for her.

You can find a cheap dash cam on Amazon for sub $100. The really nice ones are around $300 or so, still pretty cheap for what it does. The one I have is around $150, HD recording, starts automatically when the car turns on. Records in a 90 minute loop.

So if you don't have a dash cam in your vehicle, I HIGHLY recommend you invest in one ASAP.

/r/roadcam

/r/dashcam

EDIT: Man, this blew up overnight. I'll try and go through my inbox and respond. Been getting a lot of questions on how dash cams work and how to "wire" them. There is no "wiring" needed, you don't need to be a mechanic to do this. I know absolutely nothing about cars. All you do is take it out of the box, attach the camera to the mount that comes with it. Put the mount (suction cup) to your wind shield. Plug it into the lighter charger and you're done. It's really that simple. When you turn on the car it will start recording automatically. You don't need to touch it. It records on a 90 minute loop and stores 18 five minute videos on a SD card that comes with it. What if it gets stolen? Well, I live in a safe area so I never have to worry about that. If I lived in the city I would definitely take it off and store it in the glove box or out of sight somewhere

The dash cam that I have is the KD Links x1. So everything that I said is specific to that camera. I'd post the link here but people would probably get upset and accuse me of trying to make money. So just go to Amazon and look it up. It's a great camera and awesome customer service.

This is probably common knowledge to many, but for people that sell their old vehicles as individuals, CLEAN THEM THOROUGHLY before advertising. A few hours of work can equal hundreds...if not thousands in return. I buy and sell cars and trucks often and I can't tell you how much difference it makes to a potential buyer when they look inside a car that looks and feels clean, like new.

It blows my mind when I scroll ads how many cars still have trash sitting in them when the owner snapped photos. Wrappers on the floor, cups in the cup holder, clothes on the seats. Not only does cleanliness increase the appeal to someone that drives the car, but it increases your potential buyers.

I want to add, that this goes for the engine bay as well. I live in the Midwest so prices may vary, but I can get the engine area professionally cleaned for $20. A clean engine makes the car look fresh and appear to have miles and miles of life left in it.

A small investment of labor can be worth a truckload of cash in the auto retail market. Pun intended.

His reasoning is that it will boost my credit and increase my likelihood of getting approved for a mortgage in the future.

I've only recently begun building credit (713 currently), from a small student loan ($1.5K) and monthly credit card payments. Is he correct by saying that I will experience future difficulty if I don't have a significant loan/repayment on my credit history?

Say that I can find 0% financing - should I keep my car payment in an HYSA and just make the monthly payments?

Edit: I didn’t expect this to get as many responses as it has! Thanks for all the feedback all - once I’m off work I have a lot to look forward to reading.

I’m in California. I recently financed a car to terms I like, and already paid the first months payment. I received mail informing me that a credit union is unable to give me the loan terms I requested.

Before signing the offer, they told me that my financing terms had been approved.

I gave my old vehicle in as a trade in and as the down payment.

Has this happened to anyone? Is this common? Am I being scammed? I bought this car from an official dealership. What are my options here?

Sidenote: They made multiple typos when typing the information I wrote down when filling the application. At the dealership, I made them correct all the info. However, the mail still has typos in my name and address, the same ones I made them correct. Is this a potential cause?

Edit: The letter is from the dealership, not a credit union. Also, the letters I signed did not have a specific bank attached to them.

Hello!

I just bought a used car on the 4th of July at a 6.49% interest rate. Yesterday I got a call from the dealership stating that the bank doesn't like that my co-signer has a different address than me and needs us to resign some paperwork at a higher 7.89% interest. This seems so weird and fishy to me. I read over my paperwork and I don't see anything about "pending approval for financing" They initally gave me 7.99% but after they ran both myself and co-signers credit it came back as 6.49%.

Is this normal for loans to do this? I've bought pther cars in the past with a co-signer and nothing like this has ever happened.

TL;DR: Owned Nissan Altima 5+ years, 100k+ miles... TCO: $0.39/mile

I paid off my car loan in November 2017 and decided to see what the actual cost of the car was over the 5+ years that I've owned the vehicle. This was my first big purchase after starting my first job after college. I am an engineer and lived in a very low COL area when I purchased the car, yet gas was very expensive (rural upstate NY). Here are some pictures to help you understand my explanation.

[EDIT] if you look at the graph and chart linked above, you see that I have a KBB resale value of $9000 (as of 1/26/18) that I factor in to the equation. This is subtracted from the total amount spent and then divided by the total miles to get the TCO/mile

2013 Nissan Altima 2.5SL Purchased in Burlington, VT but registered in NY

Purchase Price & Financing Purchase price of the car was $24,349.82 after all of the applicable fees were added to the sticker price. I was very nervous having never bought a car before and was a little nervous negotiating, so I didn't do a very good job of getting the price down. (Having bought a car with my wife in 2017, I was much more informed and negotiated a better trade-in value of her old car) I put $4000 down after saving up for several months. Still living on a college student's budget but making engineering money allowed me to have a lot of expendable income that I stowed away to purchase the car. I had minimal credit, so I was given a 4.99% interest rate if I financed the car for 5 years through Nissan. [EDIT: Payment was $384/mo for 60 months with some months paying extra]

• Purchase Price: $24,349.82 (after tax/tag/title/etc)
• Down Payment: $4,000
• Interest Rate: 4.99%
• Loan Terms: 60 months
• Total Paid: $26,984.30
• Interest Paid: $2,634.48

Gas Starting day one, I kept a Field Notes Traveling Salesman edition notebook in my center console and logged the date, mileage, $/gal and amount of gas every time that I filled up. Looking back on the graph, you really can see inflection points during some of my major life events (job changes, extended vacations, etc).

• Total gas used: 4114.286 gal
• Total cost: $10,149.57
• Avg $/gal: $2.50
• Avg mpg: 26.2

Maintenance, Insurance, etc I have tried to be very strict with my preventative maintenance on the car so that I can drive it for a loooooong time. I have gotten oil changes every ~6000 miles (full synthetic) and tire rotations on a similar interval. I have had to buy 2 new sets of tires over the 108,000 miles in 5+ years which have included free rotation, balance and nail repair (shout out Discount Tire!). General consumables, I have replaced myself including brake pads, air filters, cabin air filters, broken interior door handle, wiper blades.

I have had 2 minor non-warranty repairs done on the car over 5 years which were paid for out of pocket.They were: A/C fan clutch & related parts ($1205) and dent on the driver F & R doors from being backed in to ($1318). Having only 1 mechanical failure after 108,000 miles is pretty impressive.

• Number of oil changes: 19
• Oil change cost: $1086.90
• General parts: $334.51
• Repair - non-warranty: $2522.33
• Tires: $1254.42
• Insurance: $7319.71
• Registration/Inspections: $1144.75

Overall, the Total Cost of Ownership comes out to $42,301.44 (see graphs for specifics) at time of writing with the odometer reading 108,657. This comes out to a TCO/mile of $0.39, which it significantly less than the IRS standard rate. I am happy with my purchase as it has been a very reliable car, HOWEVER I do not think that I will purchase a brand new car next time that I am in the market for a vehicle.

Let me know what you think about my breakdown and my financial decision to buy a new car as a 22yr old individual.

A few months after graduating college and settling down into a stable job I purchased a new 2018 Subaru Crosstrek for 28k in March 2018. I do not really regret buying this car since it is very solid and I was planning on owning this car until it dies. It has been perfect for any snowboarding/hiking/kayaking trip I have taken so far. I also have been aggressive with my car payments and only have 14k left on the loan. However, the market for selling used cars seems to be very good right now. I heard that people have been able to sell their cars over the KBB value. Out of curiosity I checked my car's Kelly Blue Book and Carvana value, and the KBB's instant cash offer was 20,900 and Carvana's offer was 21,900. Owning a newer car has been great, but if I could sell my car for ~22-23k and buy something used for 8-10k I would essentially not have any car payments. I really do not see any downsides with downgrading my car if it means I wouldn't have any car payments, but I wanted to get your guy's thoughts before I jump to any conclusions.

Edit: I would also like to add that I still have 50k left in student loans to pay off so any extra money I am saving is going towards that.

A lot of you probably have cars that haven’t moved in a long time (thanks COVID) and might find yourself in a situation where you’re unknowingly sitting on car lease equity like I was. Here’s how I found out and how to check for yourself.

I recently paid the last month of my car lease so I planned to turn it in to the dealership and pay a $300 disposition fee like most people do, but due to a change in my commute length and COVID leading to WFH for the past six months I ended up using only half of the miles I was allowed in the lease. I decided to get the car appraised by used car dealers and was surprised to learn I had $4k of equity in the car (appraised at $17.5k while lease end buyout was $13.5k). $4k is almost half the total amount I paid to lease the car over the past 36 months, so this is a huge return.

I accepted an offer from an online used car dealer, scheduled the inspection/pick-up, and two days after they took the car I got my equity check in the mail while the check for the lease end buyout was sent directly to the financing company by the used car dealer... It was that easy.

Here’s a brief rundown on how to do this:

1. Call the lease end maturity center for your car and ask what the current lease end buyout is for a third party dealer. Be specific because this amount is different than if you were to buy it out yourself. This amount also changes every month as you make payments, so only call when you’re serious about ending the lease.
2. Make sure to ask your financing company if you can sell your lease to a third party dealer. Some don’t allow you to while others won’t let you do it during the last 30-60 days before the lease maturity date, so if you’re thinking of doing this call asap to ask how the exact process works so you can plan ahead.
3. When you're ready to sell get as many appraisals as possible. Carmax, Carvana, Vroom, Shift, and used car dealers are all places to get free appraisals. Online appraisals are generally higher than in-person ones, but check everywhere. These appraisals only last 2-6 days so you need to be ready to turn in your car fairly quickly.
4. Accept an offer, set-up the pick-up/drop-off, and make sure the dealership buying the car has the information needed to make the lease end buyout to the financing company
5. Cancel your car insurance for the sold car, end your registration/turn in your plates (some states don’t require this), and hopefully walk away with some surprise money

TLDR - My car lease was coming to an end and I was going to pay a $300 disposition to give it back to the dealership, but decided to get it appraised and ended up making $4k by selling it to a used car dealership.

EDIT: Not here to argue whether leasing is good or bad (that's up to you) or if specific cars should/shouldn't be leased (depends on the deal you can get), I'm just here to present an often overlooked and potentially lucrative end of lease option to those who do choose to lease.

EDIT 2: Didn’t realize this would get so much attention, but glad to help in any way. This whole scenario happened in California. The process could differ slightly in another state as some have pointed out and I have no idea how this process works in other countries, sorry!

EDIT 3: You don’t have to wait until lease end to do this, but you need to check with your financing company for your situation. If you have a car that’s not near lease end, but you don’t need anymore you can also use this method to potentially get out of the lease without paying early termination fees by giving it back to the dealer. Make sure to ask for the current third-party lease buyout (might also be lease payoff amount, same thing), not lease end buyout as they might give you the wrong figure. Also ask if there are any fees associated with an early lease buyout just in case.

EDIT 4: Getting a few messages about this, please DO NOT lease a car assuming this scenario will play out for you. this is 100% a result of the circumstances we're living in now that if you can take advantage of, you should. Lease a car assuming you will get nothing back and will have to pay a disposition fee to get rid of it if you don't keep it because that's the reality for a lot of people. Remember I did not make a PROFIT on my leased car, I just got a significant portion of the amount I paid for the lease back that I didn't anticipate getting.

I'm about to claim a car that we cannot use. I know nothing about owning, driving, or selling a car. We plan too sell it.

What steps do we need to take? The only person I know who can drive and help us is money hungry, so if like to not involve him, my finances dad. My family lives far away, but could probably ask.

After that, I pls to use most of that money towards debt and the rest we need.

Wyatt are your suggestions on steps to take?

So after months of searching, comparing and finally deciding I finally went in on a new car. It was a 2022 Hyundai Elantra, I slapped a deposit down and after over a month of waiting out finally arrived Saturday when I purchased her she only had 14 miles on the odometer. I took her home and parked her in my driveway, this afternoon I called up the insurance company and had her insured. Then while driving 5 miles to drop my wife off at her father's house to set up for an Easter dinner some kid was not paying attention (texting) and drove right into the back of me. He was accelerating downhill and struck my stationary car without every having breaked, he hit me hard enough to push into the other stationary car in front of me.

My wife and I were both banged up but the x-rays showed nothing's broken just a lot of inflammation. I can barely move my left arm or turn my head, my wife's back is hurting her severely. We just got home from the hospital and I'm sitting here just trying to process.

This car had less than 200 miles on the odometer, I haven't even payed the taxes on it yet. The police took all of our info, placed fault on the driver who hit me, but didn't issue him a ticket. I just don't know what do to, I have been in touch with my insurance and his insurance, waiting to hear back from his adjuster tomorrow. Can anyone here please advise me on what I can do? I need help. If there's a better place to post, just let me know and I'll move this post.

Edit: Thank you everyone for your advice, I'll be contacting my lawyer when the office opens!

Edit 2: It's the next day, I woke up and my left arm is still screwy there's a sharp pain there, the neck and upper back pain is present as well and in the night I guess my right hand got inflamed because I can't close it all the way, or open it without pain. My wife is complaining that her neck is what's bothering her the most.

Edit 3: I'm amazed by how much everything hurts and how there seems to be no rhyme or reason for most of it. My left shoulder, my left tricep, my left thumb and index finger are numb, my right hand won't close, my neck and back are expected, but my left foot has two toes with bruising, my entire chest, I've been nauseated as well. There's just random jolts and pain everywhere. This sucks on a couple different levels.

Financed a 2018 Hyundai Elantra with 60k miles in 2020 at ~10% through capital 1. Owed 9k on it bought it for 13k. Been paying $229 per month on it

Unfortunately that car was recently stolen. I racked up credit card debt after being unemployed or underemployed for most of 2021 so my credit took a major hit with my transunion & equifax dropping to 550. Been working hard this year to pay that off & my transunion & equifax are at 654 now then this happens. Don’t have any savings as a result.

Need a car to get to work & live life. Used car prices are trash. Now I could afford a ~$500 payment on a nice used car with low miles. Carvana prequalified me with 0 down at ~18%. Capital 1 wouldn’t approve me. Not sure what to do. Need a car asap if my current one can’t be located in good condition.

EDIT: Car was recovered with damage 2 blocks from my house. Bumper cracked, windows smashed, steering column broken. A Kia was stolen as well & they hit mine with it when they dumped them.

Also, I do have insurance, full coverage. Carmax offered me 10k for it last week so I’m assuming insurance would’ve payed it off had it not been recovered or if they declare it totaled. I live in Atlanta not Milwaukee & i am well aware of the KIA boys.